Just Say No

Napa

Sunday morning we drove to Napa (and we didn't get lost this time!) Before we went to D's parents' house we stopped in at Bouchon Bakery again to pick up some breakfast treats. Once we arrived at the house, k was a bit overwhelmed by all of the new faces, but she calmed down by lunchtime. In the afternoon she was having a grand ol' time rolling around the floor and doing the "bouncy-bouncy".


k was able to meet her cousin Shaun for the first time.

We ate lunch at a restaurant called Brix. They had a lovely garden out back.




The Lim clan (minus Jackie, our sister-in-law, who took the picture)


Grandma Lim with her two grandchildren


At night we had dinner at Zare. The waitress told us that the restaurant is closing for good in about a week. Too bad, because the food was really good!

Moraga --> Oakland

Saturday afternoon we went to Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church to witness our friends from WPC tie the knot. Neither of us had been to Moraga before. Although there is some bad traffic around that area, it is beautiful once you get there.

The church is on a hilltop. This is the view from inside the church.


The church building itself is also very nice.


This picture was taken by the father of the groom before the ceremony. Too bad I missed most of the ceremony due to the fact that k started making noise. At least D was able to fill me in. :)


The getaway car.


The reception was at the Oakland Marriott, where we also reserved a room. k seemed to enjoy her first stay in a hotel room.

This bed was sooo comfortable. The whole ensemble can be yours for around $3,000 according to their catalogue.

The view from our room during the day.


The view at night.


k slept through most of the reception. Amazing, considering all of the glass clinking and such. There were about 400 people in attendance.


Cutting the cake.

The lovely couple.

Note: She's Chinese and He's Japanese, so she wore this Chinese dress part of the time and then changed into a Japanese kimono-dress. How cute. I believe the wedding cake topper was also Chinese-Japanese.

Santa Clara --> Berkeley

The only time we got lost during the long weekend was going to D's cousin's house in Santa Clara. I'll just blame it on Yahoo! maps, which told us to make a left instead of a right. Santa Clara actually reminded us a lot of Irvine. D's cousin's wife cooked us a delicious dinner of short ribs with a vegetable puree, mashed potatoes, rolls and salad. I called it "gourmet" but she described it as "rustic".




The next morning we headed up to Berkeley. We had fun posing with k around campus. We couldn't resist buying her a couple of things at the student store. Notice that I dressed k in her tie-dye outfit so she would blend in.


Taking a break by Strawberry Creek


Sitting on Oski


Wheeler Hall


Sather Gate


I don't think this bridge has a name.


Can you believe the student store on campus sells dried squid? Ew. They also had sushi to go, which was unheard of when we were there.


We stopped at one my favorite Berkeley cafes--Cafe Strada.


Lunch was at Zachary's. Deep dish pizza--yum. Yes, it still deserves a place on D's restaurant list.

1st Stop...Cupertino

We made it to Cupertino in six hours. After exiting DeAnza we looked for a place to eat and ended up at Siam Thai. The chicken dishes we ordered were tasty, but my side of pad thai was somewhat lacking in the flavor department.

Afterward we went to my friend W's house. I first met W during my freshman year in the dorms. I started saying "ai-yah" and "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" because of her. :) Anyway, I was excited to meet her two daughters, each of whom coincidentally have one of my names. (I'll let you figure that one out yourself).



W served us some refreshing watermelon. This was no ordinary watermelon so I had to take a picture!


Next we went to my second cousin's house. Her baby was born within a couple of days of W's youngest (they're about three months old now). As you can see, both W's baby (pictured above) and k's third cousin (pictured below) have a lot more hair than her!


Next stop...Santa Clara.

4 Days. 1,000+ Miles.

We just returned from a trip up to Northern California. This was k's first "major" trip and she did pretty well. It all started with a wedding that we were invited to in Moraga. We decided it would be a good opportunity to visit people, so our itinerary was as follows:

Friday: Visit my college friend and her family in Cupertino. Visit my second cousin and her baby in Cupertino. Visit D's cousin and his wife in Santa Clara and stay overnight at their place.

Saturday: Go to Berkeley (mostly so D could go to the Student Store). Attend wedding in Moraga and reception in Oakland. Stay overnight in Oakland.

Sunday: Visit D's family in Napa and stay overnight.

Monday: Go home, but stop to visit my Grandma and Auntie in Paso Robles.

As you can imagine, we're tired, but it was lots of fun. We have lots of photos to share, but for now, we will leave you with just one of D and k at a rest stop somewhere along I-5.

Trying to Crawl

k has been getting up on all fours, trying to crawl. She's probably wondering why we cheer for her when she does this. I have a feeling that once she does start crawling everywhere, we'll long for the days where we could just plop her down and she would stay in one place.





Also, her first tooth is just barely coming in!

Training for Half-Marathon

For the last 4 months, I have been training for my 2nd Half-Marathon which will be held on September 2nd. I plan to run the Disneyland Half-Marathon in Anaheim in 2 Hours and 5 Minutes, which is over 14 minutes faster than I ran it last year. I should be helped by a number of factors. First I hope I will be in the 2nd grouping instead of the 4th grouping which will allow me to run with faster runners, i.e. less people walking in full costume. I will find out soon, but my time from last year should get me there. Second I have lost about 7 pounds since last year's race. Since I have been running, 15 months ago, I have lost 12 pounds. Thirdly, I plan on stopping (walking for a minute) every other water stop instead of every water stop. There is a stop every 1.5 miles. I have run 4 10.5 mile runs so far compared with 3 10.5 mile runs last year. And I have been stopping every 3 miles or so. Fourthly, I plan on eating a banana or piece of toast w/ jam before my race along with a gel shot instead of just the gel shot. Last year I was jittery due to the caffeine in the gel shot and was hungry. Finally, I will make sure to use the porta-potty 30 minutes before the race instead of 45 mintues before so I am not uncomfortable after drinking a lot of water.

My long training runs are run at a little after 6 a.m. to around 8 a.m. I am surprised at how hot it can get this early in the morning. Even though it is only about 70 degrees at the end on my runs, it slows you down a lot compared with running in 50 degree weather. I am running and biking now, and stopped the swimming, so I can cooncentrate on my lower body. I enjoy running in Huntington Beach with the breeze and the beauty of the beach to look at. Also my running shoes, Asics 2110, are a good fit for me. I read that the Asics 2120 now has Solyte, which is lighter midsole material. I also have new shorts and a shirt, so I will look different in my race. My shorts are shorter in the front, so my legs don't have to move much material, and my shirt is a little lighter, however it does have wider shoulder straps. But the white color should reflect more sunlight. Stay tuned for more updates.

For some reason, Blogger is not letting me put titles on my posts. Anyway, on Sunday we acted like lemmings and met my sister and her husband at Yogurtland. When we arrived at 3 p.m. the line was out the door.



For those who haven't followed the frozen yogurt craze, this place is different because it is self-serve (yogurt and toppings) and you pay 30 cents an ounce. It ends up being cheaper than Pinkberry if you exercise some restraint.


Here is my creation. Those marshmallow-looking things are actually mochi bits--yum! Kev and I liked the "tart" flavors while D and my sister liked the regular sweet ones better.


We also noticed these people waiting next store for Taiko to open at 4:30. That must be some seriously good Japanese food if people are willing to bring stadium chairs and wait a couple of hours for the place to open! D has been there for lunch and it made his "list".


Afterward we went to Debbie's 29th birthday party at a park in Irvine. I was thankful to have k as an excuse not to play kickball!


Here's D testing out a jogging stroller that one of our friends brought to the park...now he wants one.

We had a busy day today, most of which we will blog about later. For now, we will leave you with pictures of k "driving" our CX-7.

A (Loud!) 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July by hanging at Seal Beach in the morning and having a barbecue at my parents' in the afternoon. At night it sounded like everyone and their mother was shooting off fireworks in our neighborhood. Amazingly, k slept through it all.


We like to use the carrier when we go to the beach since strollers and sand don't work too well. It was amazing how much bigger k looked in the carrier this time.


A tisket, a tasket, a baby with a green and yellow onesie in a basket.

It's getting hot in here...

...so take off all your clothes (except for your diaper)!

This Is How We Roll

On Sunday k was making a lot of noise during service. Good thing we were in the "cry room". D took her outside to calm her down a bit.

After church we met up with one of D's old friends from high school/college and his girlfriend. They flew in from Hong Kong for a wedding the day before. We ate lunch at Wahoo's at Fashion Island. After chatting over some gelato we drove down PCH to Laguna. We strolled the boardwalk and then found a shady patch of grass and chilled.




Here's Eug taking a nap. He must've been really tired because it was fairly noisy/crowded.